summer is over
by MadiYasha
Summary: A fic depicting the twins' final day in Gravity Falls. Mostly Dippercentric and Teenscentric. Has oodles of Wenbie and some fluffy platonic Wendip. (Cover image by tumblr user moringmark)
1. Chapter 1

The Pines twins were unsure of what had possessed their great uncle on that final day of their summer in Gravity Falls. Dipper would attest it was some sort of vengeful spirit taking punishment out on Stan by making him spend money out of his pocket on people who weren't himself. Mabel brought up the idea of a potential bribe being cooked up. At the end of the day, when all was said and done, it seemed like the ill-dispositioned man actually wanted to make their last day worthwhile. They had seen some seriously weird stuff in this town, but this was definitely a first.

The backside of the Mystery Shack leading into the woods had, since then, been made into a perfect dig for the party. Their Grunkle laid down the basics for them: it was going to be a huge end-of-summer blowout bonfire. Marshmallows, tall tales, weenies, and maybe some booze to loosen things up for the grown-ups. Mabel had immediately invited Candy and Grenda to join the usual gang that hung around. Stan had no problem with Wendy bringing her loud, rambunctious friends (again, probably another lapse in judgment) and set it up so that there would be music loud enough to wake the neighbours far away in town and enough refreshments to keep everyone sugar-hyped and well-fed.

Dipper had other things on his mind, however-namely, a girl he'd been preoccupied with since his first couple weeks in this sleepy town.

Mabel had nagged and nagged him for months now to tell Wendy how he felt. If Dipper were to even try to translate to words how "he felt" about Wendy, it would probably look something like "sddasfdsfgflk" followed by a gratuitous amount of less than three emotes, which he would then delete before sending. Point was, Dipper knew how to hunt monsters and tear apart conspiracies and hold his own in a world of the supernatural-but was not well-versed in the _slightest_ on the topic of girls.

His impulse initially was to make one of his complicated lists detailing his plan and precisely how to carry it out, but he'd learned early into the summer that he was probably better off just winging it and hoping he didn't embarrass himself. Still, he'd spent a good portion of the day going over scenarios in his head, trying to find the words, and reminding himself that they'd be a lot harder of sentences to squeeze out with the crazy flutter his heart was sent into whenever she entered the room.

o0o0o0o0o0o

When the sun had started setting, Mabel and her friends burst out the front doors of the shack, all of them decked out in near-theatrical makeup ("Makeovers!" she had insisted) and happily dancing to the music resonating from the shack's back porch. Dipper and Wendy were perched atop the roof in their usual hangout, contentedly eating ice cream bars of some undetermined flavour. He was nervously checking his surroundings, wondering if it was good enough of a moment to talk to her, but the mood hadn't dimmed yet and the energy was still high, so he settled for keeping his words inside while he made small talk with her.

"I never really noticed how sweet the view was up here," He mentioned.

"Oh, yeah, it's awesome." Wendy proclaimed. "I kind of have a thing for sunsets, I kind of make it a point to find high places facing east just so I can see the best ones in the summer. I used to just settle for trees, but this definitely takes the cake."

The younger boy smiled. "I never knew you were into sunsets."

"Yeah, it's kind of a funny story. You know how you just have those things from your childhood that stick with you? Like weird things that seem silly at the time, but ended up being significant," She explained. "I had this friend when I was younger who was kind of a sad person, and she watched a lot of sunsets because she thought they were beautiful and they cheered her up. For someone who claimed to be unhappy at such a young age, she was really strong. And I missed her a lot when I moved here... so I guess I watch the sunsets so I don't forget all the things we talked about at the end of the day."

Dipper peered into her, suddenly inspired by the profoundness in her voice and the way the words left her like heavy weights. "You know, when I was a kid, I was terrified that aliens were going to abduct me in the middle of the night. That sounds really stupid, but I really believed it. So I'd force myself awake and never get any sleep," He stammered over his words, chuckling slightly. "Mabel started to get worried about me, so she'd crawl down to my bunk and sleep in my bed and talk about how if any aliens tried to probe me she'd pelt them with her massive collection of porcelain pig figurines until I fell asleep. Our parents would come in our room in the morning and laugh about us being inseparable... I don't know, that's always kind of stuck with me."

Wendy grinned. "You guys are awesome. I always kinda felt like the outcast in my family. It's nice being the firstborn and having the title of daddy's little girl, but my brothers are so close and I'm just on the outside. Gets lonely sometimes, you know?"

"You've got cool friends, though. I know it isn't the same, but... we're both lucky in our own ways." He laughed, taking another bite of his melting ice cream.

"Guess you're right," She leaned back, staring into the endless pool of oranges and blues in front of them. "So hey, bet you don't know why the sun sets red."

He tilted his head at her curiously.

"Well, it goes like... light is made up of a bunch of colours, and out of all of them, red is the one that travels the farthest. Cool, huh?"

The descending light in the sky reflected her long scarlet hair and made it look like a brilliant flame-blanketing the shape of her face and falling along her shoulders and Dipper couldn't help but stare into those bright green eyes of hers that were framed by her freckles and _smile like a huge dork. _Red was a good colour, he thought. "Yeah. Cool."  
Wendy's attention was immediately directed toward the ground below when she saw the van pull up. Adorning a huge grin, she fought the inevitable brainfreeze and scarfed down what little was left of her ice cream, chewing on the soggy popsicle stick as she turned back to Dipper. "Dude, the crew's here! Mind if I go hang with them?"

He was sad to know if he said yes she'd probably disappear somewhere on an adventure without him, but he knew it was a rhetorical question from the beginning. "No way! Have fun! I'll be around!"

"Thanks, man!" She beamed, and twirled down the nearest tree like it was a fire pole.

Dipper let a tiny smile plaster itself on his face and headed back down the roof to observe how everyone else had been while he was up there with his head in the clouds. From what he could tell, Soos was halfway between humouring Grunkle Stan's stories about Guantanamo Bay and messing with the sound equipment, Mabel and her friends were roasting marshmallows and making s'mores so big he was sure they couldn't even fit in the girls' mouths, and Wendy and her friends were all in their own corner causing a ruckus. He caught a glimpse of Robbie wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her into a kiss with way too much tongue than Dipper could bear without projectile vomiting, so he turned away and settled for filling his evening learning about the adventures of Stan in Cuba.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Wendy wasn't nervous about making a hasty escape into the woods without being detected by the younger ones-mostly she was just concerned about her uproarious friends and if they could manage to lay low even when they got to the river. So far everything was going alright, and Robbie had promised to pummel someone if they did anything too reckless. She was soured with the actual idea of that happening, but appreciated the sentiment behind it. Nonetheless, every step they got closer to the sound of rushing water made her feel less paranoid, and finally the trees broke into a clearing and they were there-surrounded by grass and with the full moon hanging over them in the calm August air. Everyone shared a collective mischievous gaze and they started dumping towels and blankets onto the grassy floor.

"This is perfect!" Wendy exclaimed. "I didn't realize it'd be this cool-looking."

The moon reflected off the water's surface and the teenagers could see bats skimming the uncharacteristically quiet river in front of them. Without a moment's hesitation, Tambry started digging in her heavy coat pockets as Nate and Lee's hushed whispers of 'you have it?' started to drift across the clearing. She pulled out a conspicuous ziploc bag and threw it at the both of them, who immediately smirked at the others.

Thompson sighed as the five of them started rolling joints to be shared, not discontented with the idea of being the permanent designated driver, but at the looming sense of doom that hung over him and reminded him that his group of friends, even under the influence of downers, _did not know how to chill out._

o0o0o0o0o0o

"I like to believe there's something more out there,"

"There's no way. It's not logical... Tambry, there's no proof, dude..."

"I don't need proof, I have faith..."

Wendy sat up, staring her childhood friend dead in the face. "Dude," she said. "Duuude, take a step back. Faith based on what? What if this is a dream? What if all of this is a dream? And... it's not even our dream."

She turned to a stray cat that had perched itself next to a bush approximately an hour ago and refused to leave, sleeping in the dirt below.

"...it's that cat's dream..." She widened her eyes, staring. "What if we're just existing in his mind? And... all of the sudden he wakes up to go get eaten by a cougar and we're gone... _what would happen if that cat wakes up?_"

Nate and Lee nodded in unison, gazing in the same direction as her, their mouths wide open in bemusement. "It'll be over..." said Lee.

Thompson fiddled with his phone, leaning on the tree beside them, and let out a sigh that screamed 'please take me away from here.'

Tambry was still going on about the vast expanse of space above them and Nate and Lee were daring each other to wake up the cat and end their existence when Wendy decided to tune out. She turned to Robbie, who almost never spoke when stoned, and let her gaze melt into his icy blues, laying her head on his chest and whispering words she'd pick much more carefully were she sober. She planted kisses on his lips that were slow and gentle and much more romantic than he was ever used to, and it just made him more lost for words than he already was. At some point in the next hour, Nate screamed something about skinny dipping and Wendy blinked for half a second and the two of them were completely bare and having a totally heterosexual splash fight while Tambry filmed it through a plastic bag housing her phone.

Wendy stood up lazily, cast a knowing gaze at her boyfriend, and stepped around a bush to undress herself and join in on the inevitable hilarity. Behind her on the blankets, he started to do the same, and when the both of them had fully stripped, the redhead shot a shy glance back at Robbie who was staring at the ground and blushing all the way to his ears. He was trying so hard to be polite, to not look at her, but she simply smiled with half-lidded eyes and guided him down to the waters edge.

The both of them shivered when they finally managed to get submerged, and paid no mind to the others beating each other with tree branches on the other stretch of the river. Instead, Wendy pressed her body up against Robbie's and kissed him again. Every one of their senses were on fire, they could feel the fibres of each other's being and smell the mixture of hemp and campfire in each others skin and when she moved her lips down to his neck he clenched his teeth and let out a quiet, breathy moan.

"Wendy," He near-whispered, and swallowed nervously. "I-I... this might... be too much for me..."

She softly smiled, always amused at how this boy who presented himself as so tough and badass melted into an awkward, stuttering kid at her touch. "Alright, alright..."

Wendy laid her head into the crook of his shoulder for a moment, feeling his pulse pound in her ears and setting the both of them at peace. After a second of staring at the flying creatures making tiny ripples in the water's edge, and bathing in the moonlight that lit up the entire clearing, Wendy and Robbie slipped out of the water and fell back onto the arrangement of towels and blankets on the grass, meshing their lips together like they were always made to do it and rolling on top of each other and loudly moaning each other's names while the teens in the water paid no mind.

Thompson buried his head in his hands and considered quick and easy ways to take his own life.


	2. Chapter 2

_**i remember june**_

_**back when i met you;**_

_**your eyes were green-**_

_**and we were, too.**_

_**but summer is over.**_

Dipper kicked at the rocks beneath his sneakers, convinced at this point that yes, Wendy _had_ been eaten by some gruesome creature in the forest, and yes, it _had_ been as gory as possible. Maybe he was overthinking things, but she'd been gone who knows where with her friends for hours now, and he was starting to wonder if he was ever going to get the chance to confess his feelings to her.

He was about to sigh again and sulk some more at how left out he was feeling when he heard laughter resonating from the forest. Moments later, the crew of teens came madly giggling and enjoying themselves out of the woods. Dipper was about to spring to his feet and ask Wendy to talk to him but was immediately daunted by a.) Robbie's presence and b.) the bottles of unidentifiable alcohol in everyone's hands.

The eventual sigh finally escaped him as he watched Wendy teeter back and forth between Tambry and Robbie, laughing uproariously and drinking with the rest of them. He'd always made the mistake of holding her on a high pedestal, as if she were an angel-a fault that was often slapped in his face when she got into trouble, or acted outwardly manipulative, or just _acted like a normal teenager in general_. Because she treated him so much more kinder than he was used to from older kids, his perception of her was a tad bit warped. Underneath it all, she was still a typical high schooler at her core, and he made a mental note to remind himself of that more often.

Soos had long since abandoned his post by Stan, who was sleeping like a rock on one of the lawn chairs, likely being assaulted by mosquitos. He'd been keeping careful eyes on all the youngins since the party had started-Soos wasn't stupid, he knew teens would be teens-but he was a tad bit nervous about the children being roped into their shenanigans. So he rested his watchful gaze on them from the porch, DJ'd up some more music, and let the good times carry into the night.

o0o0o0o0o0o

"Alls I'm saying is, if your closet has it's own wifi network, YOUR CLOSET IS TOO FUCKING BIG."

"Robbie, shut up."

"Back-Back in-dudes, okay-Back in Deennnver, I went to my friend's house, and his closet had another closet inside it. Eldness... eldnlde... ENDLESS... do-_doors_, man, what if you just kept opening doors and they went on forever?" Robbie spilled half his solo cup on Nate's shoe. "Where would you fucking go. It doesn't matter. YOUR CLOSET IS TOO FUCKING BIG."

"Someone cut this asshole off," Tambry buried her face in her phone, likely uploading pictures of aforementioned asshole to tumblr. "He can't handle sugar and he definitely can't handle booze."

"You're _dumb_, and I'm going to prove it, I'm go-gonna..." The ravenette teetered again, grabbing the nearest object he saw fit and holding it up like a prize. "I am going to fit all these marshmallows in my nose, and I am going to be a _god_."

"Sweet jesus." said Lee.

"Dude, you're on! I'll race you!" Thompson said not because he was under the influence of mind-altering substances, but because he was Thompson.

The gauntlet was thrown as the 6 of them designated their corner of the lawn to a literal cesspool of drunken stupidity. Tambry started filming the moment the others started throwing money down, betting on who could fit more sugary death into the orifices they possessed. Thompson had going for him that he was sober, but Robbie was the literal king of fitting glucose-ridden substances into places they didn't belong.

Eventually, after a lot of screaming and more alcohol, Robbie took home the trophy and proved that yes, he was indeed a god. Thompson, in retaliation, threw a hot dog directly at Robbie's face. The lukewarm meat slipped down his clammy visage and he shrugged in apathy. Wendy dared Nate to eat it and it was only after he'd taken the first bite that Tambry ran to a bush and projectile vomited. The night was young.

Since then, the rest of them spent the evening rocking out to the tunes and getting more and more shitfaced. Robbie (who was an obvious lightweight) used his time wisely by deciding to grind all over his girlfriend (who held her alcohol like a 200-pound linebacker) while she laughed and pushed him off and generally made comments ranging from "you're such a little shit," to "god, I love you."

"Hey, hey-babe, what do you say we ditch this place?"

"You're a trashy bastard."

"I know. Let's hook up in your boss' closet."

"You're drunk."

"So are you."

"Correction, dude; I'm drinking. _You're_ drunk."

Robbie just smirked, kissed her, and excused himself to walk 5 feet, turn away, and pull out a sharpie.

"What are you doing?"

"Dr-drawing a dick... on my face..."

"Again? Dude, you literally do this every time we party."

He stared at her, dead serious with the wobbly depiction of male anatomy all across his cheek. "It's going to happen anyways."

Wendy giggled, starting to feel the haze getting to her. She wrapped her arms around the Robbie, trailing her fingers up to the shaggy, shaven fuzz on the back of his head. She pulled him into another kiss, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie and brushing her tongue against his lips. He could feel her grinning devilishly, and he fucking loved it.

The two of them ended up on the other end of the porch, too wrapped up in memorizing the taste of each other's acidic saliva to pay anyone else any notice. Hastily grasping door knobs, falling into the shack, knocking over merchandise that Stan would no doubt yell about in the morning-all the while never opening their eyes.

Robbie considered making up several more jokes about large closets while he made out with Wendy in a painfully small one, filled with god knows what kind of fake tourist trap bullshit and probably a shit ton of bugs. Surprisingly, however, he remembered that there was an attractive female kissing him and whispering his name in between breaths, and quickly focused on that. He made a mental note to get drunk more often-suddenly he was invincible, and confident, and probably able to last more than 30 seconds if he put his mind to it.

He bit her lip, and she moaned something extremely vulgar into his throat, and at that point there was pretty much no way this wasn't the best night of his life.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Dipper looked at the can of beer on the porch next to him. Then at everyone else at the party, enjoying themselves and laughing with their friends. Then back at the beer. Then at Wendy falling out of the shack with her shirt unevenly buttoned up and marks all over her collarbones and her boyfriend hanging off of her in a euphoric heap.

He took a sip.

...and then promptly through the can halfway across the yard. _This is disgusting. _He thought. _Why would anyone drink that?_

The brunette buried his face in his arms, resting his eyelids on his cold knees and accepting his fate that there was no way he and Wendy could both be happy tonight. It was a sacrifice he had to make often for the greater good, and it was starting the look like the fates simply did not will him to be anything important to her. Sighing, he sat there for a moment just taking in the music, and hoping someone would comfort him-but everyone was busy to their own advances, and he was alone.

Dipper was jolted out of his journey into preteen angst only by the sound of an engine revving, and he panicked when he saw that the older kids were all packing into Thompson's van, off on some adventure (or probably to crash at his house) elsewhere. Scrambling to his feet, he ran to Wendy, who was on her way into the back seat, and frantically tried to get her attention. It was now or never.

"Wendy! Hey!"

She turned around, eyes half-lidded and glazed over. "Yeah, man?"

"Th-there's, uh..." He twiddled his thumbs. "Wendy, there's something I gotta tell you. Before I have to leave tomorrow. And I was-wondering, i-if maybe you could come by in the morning before my parents come and take Mabel and I home?"

She tilted her head and smiled sweetly. "Yeah, alright!"

"You can't forget, Wendy, okay?" He near-begged. "Please. This is really important. No matter what. You gotta show up before noon, alright?"

She leaned down so she was on his level, her expression never faltering from that charismatic kindness it always radiated, and held out her pinky. "My word's always good, Dips. Trust me."

Those words echoed in his mind. Since the day he was brought here, Dipper had been told to trust no one. He was beginning to think that this shell he had put up-that air of nervousness every time he met someone new-was all irrational. Smiling, he nodded, and locked his finger with hers.

"See you soon!" She beamed, and Dipper's heart couldn't help but soar as he watched the van speed off down the gravel road.

o0o0o0o0o0o

The Pines boy had been fidgeting in his bed for an hour, unable to sleep because of anxiety and nerves-things that plagued him often, especially since meeting Wendy. Most nights, he would lie awake with his face dyed a deep red; thinking about her eyes and her smile and her long hair and the way she carried herself and just _her_. Or he'd plan adventures for them, going to the pool and wreaking havoc again, or him showing her all his secret places in the forest, exploring and monster hunting and having fun together. Being with Wendy. Holding Wendy's hand. _Kissing Wendy._

He buried his face under his pillow again, ashamed that after a whole summer, this infatuation of his had only gotten worse. Berating himself for not being good enough or old enough to be the man of her dreams, and knowing full well that she did have definite feelings for Robbie, he made a dying animal noise and turned over again, only to be met with his sister's face as she shouted _'HELLO!'_

He jumped, regained his composure, and wearily looked around the room for anyone else planning on startling him. The clock read 3 AM and there was no one else (besides the usual pig) occupying the room. He turned back over, grumbling slightly.

"Did everyone go home?" He inquired.

"Yeah," Mabel responded. "Soos gave Candy and Grenda a ride home after carrying Grunkle Stan inside and throwing him on his bed. That was fun."

He didn't respond.

"But hey, how are you, brobro?" She jumped up on her bed, kicking her feet and leaning toward him. "I didn't see you with Wendy, much."

Dipper groaned into his pillow again. "She was drinking and with Robbie all night. Even if I could get her away from him to talk to her, there's no way the mood could've been right! I want to tell Wendy when she's herself, not when she's completely letting loose everywhere and probably won't remember in the morning."

"Dipper, this is bad! You have to tell her before we leave!"

"I know, I know, I had a backup plan. I asked her to come by in the morning and she promised me she would..." He sighed. "But this is hard. Girls are hard. Girls in _high school_ are even harder. They're like... complete aliens!"

Mabel's ears perked ever so slightly, and she grinned.

Quietly, she tiptoed over to his mattress, where he was faced away from her, and eased under the half-strewn covers next to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and hugging him softly. He shifted a bit, raising his eyes up from the pillow but still not looking at her.

"Mabel? What're you doing?"

He couldn't see her, but her smile shone through in her tone. "Protecting you from the aliens."

Dipper mirrored her expression (that smile he was thankful they shared) and closed his eyes. The both of them smelled like bonfire smoke and pine needles and sweat, and for the first time in a while, Dipper managed to sleep soundly and peacefully.

o0o0o0o0o0o

The morning was still crisp when their parents car rolled into Stan's driveway, and already things were getting bittersweet. Packing up their rooms in the attic had to have been one of the hardest things the two of them had ever done, and many an argument was had on what was happening with Waddles. Soos was crying and hugging them both, Stan was trying to hide the fact that he was getting emotional as well, and overall it was just sads all around for the whole family.

The elder Pines had pulled into Stan's driveway sometime around 11, and Dipper was awake worrying about Wendy's absence long before then. He wanted to have faith in her more than anything in the world-but the odds were inevitably stacked against him. She could've forgotten in her walk-of-shame induced haze, or been unable to catch a ride, or could've even slept through any alarm she made a futile attempt to set. Dipper came from a fairly honest upbringing, but when his family let loose on the holidays, he _knew_ what the aftermath looked like, and that knowledge scared him.

His parents were starting to grow tired of catching up with Stanford (who undoubtedly had a reputation in the family) and Dipper's anxiety levels were skyrocketing. He'd been stalling for god knows how long, with Mabel lending her services to him in an attempt to help, but he could see the control of this situation slipping out of his hands, and was starting to resign himself to the thought that he was probably not going to get this off his chest for a long time.

It wasn't until he eased into the sulk he would keep for the next couple months that he heard rapid footsteps coming from the opposite direction. His heart jumped, and he slowly turned around to see his redemption-her hair was unbrushed and messy and her eyes were only just shaking sleep, but she was running for her life and had the biggest grin on her face when she nearly collapsed at Dipper's feet. The worry in his chest sunk into some deep, dark corner of the ocean in his heart, and he smiled so big his cheeks hurt.

"Dude, I am so sorry I'm late." Wendy said in between panting breaths. "I overslept and then no one could give me a ride so I had to run here."

"I'm just glad you showed!" He beamed. "I thought you weren't going to make it."

"Told you, man. My word's always good. I don't break promises."

He kicked the dirt beneath his worn sneakers, and nodded, almost ashamed for ever doubting her.

"Alright, I did my part, what's this thing you gotta tell me? Make it good."

Dipper searched inside himself, desperate for a shred of confidence like the radiance she so often displayed. He realized, then that it was now or never, and these silly anxieties of his would mean nothing when he was speeding down a California road, far away from this girl he learned to love. He couldn't help that he was shaking, or that his heart felt like it was going to explode-but he remembered 3 months of fighting monsters, and protecting the people he loved from harm, and facing fears he spent his whole life thinking were far off dreams. Somewhere inside him, there was a brave adventurer who could take on anything, and he convinced himself that this was no different from any other obstacle he had been put up against. So he took another breath, looked up at her, and began his official statement, his resignation to this fear that rested inside of him for so long.

"On June 12th I pulled into this town and unpacked my bags and started mentally preparing myself for a summer full of learning how to pitch tents and tie knots with distant family I barely knew. And I never really planned for a lot of the things that I saw here to happen, but I remember Grunkle Stan giving us the tour and telling us what we could and couldn't touch, dismissing you and Soos as 'those are your co-workers, be nice to them because I can't afford to fire anyone.' And that was the first time I saw you and I couldn't help but notice how your eyelids never really lifted themselves when you'd read your magazines with your muddy boots on the counter or how you'd carve graffiti into the wood, and I always thought it was sort of... endearing.

"The week after that I was having a bad morning but suddenly Stan left the building and you transformed into this person I'd never seen before. You took me by the hand and brought me into a world, _your _world, where you were free to do what you wanted. You set this happy place up where no one could tell you what to do and you let me and my sister experience it with you. When you picked that pinecone up and hit that totem pole from 15 feet away something inside of me struck a match, and when you looked down at me and gave me that high five the match dropped and lit my heart on fire.

"The fact that you never get sick of me and Mabel is what keeps me coming back. No matter what you're doing, or who you're with, if I want to be there, too, I can. Wendy, you've never turned me away. And I'm young, but you don't see me as less than you, even if I do sometimes. The thing is, I worry a lot-and I try to combat it, by analyzing the situation and making plans and lists and equations to try and make every scenario work out in my favour. But you don't. I worry about things, and you _do_ them, and I think a part of me wants to be like you, but knows I never will, so instead, I admire you from afar. And I knew that I'm me, and I could never be you, and that's why my brain did the next best thing. The truth is... Wendy Corduroy, I'm in love with you. And I'd like to say that this is just a crush on some cool older girl and I'll forget in years to come. But it isn't. It's been three months, and you're still the light of my life."

She kneeled there, sitting on eye level with him, peering into him like he was a precious jewel. People didn't say things like that to her. The people who loved her most just kept it all inside and let bits of their adoration slip out when their guard was down-she'd learned that from years of boys who found themselves drawn to her for one reason or another. A lot of things made sense, in retrospect-she'd never taken the time to consider that this boy was so interested in who she was as a person, but it warmed her, and her cautious awe slowly metamorphosed into a soft grin. "Dipper..."

"Don't worry about it," He said. "I'm not hoping for anything. There's too many odds stacked against me. But I wanted to tell you for good, before I had to say goodbye until whenever. I know I'm too young, and you obviously... _love_ the guy you're with, and it's okay. It's alri-"

His speech was cut short when she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards her and _kissed him_, in front of everyone who had been listening and watching the emotional event. It wasn't meant to have romantic inclination-Wendy was a firm believer in the fact that platonic intimacy was a thing that was very allowed. It was innocent, and parting, and she held him there for what felt like forever, suddenly very choked up to see him leave. From behind them, Mabel strung her fingers together and leaned to the side, bursting with happiness and pride at the thought that this was probably the happiest moment of her brother's life thus far. Soos joined her, Stan made a gagging noise, and their parents chatted happily amongst themselves and exchanged whispers of '_That must be the girl he talked about so much,' _and _'Oh, yeah, she seems nice..._'

The light wind replaced where Wendy's lips had been a moment ago, and she looked into his muddy eyes, her freckled cheeks adorning the brilliance of her unfaltering smile. She stood up, flicked the underside of his baseball cap, and leaned down to give him a hug. Still dazed and shocked, Dipper said nothing.

"I'll see you next summer. Write me, dorkus."

He swallowed, and nodded, and stared up at her longingly. "Of course."

There were tears pricking the corner of Dipper's eyes, and he blinked them back and took a breath before reluctantly turning away and heading towards the car, where his family was already in and revving the engine, beckoning him to join. His footsteps were slow and heavy and he peeked over his shoulder at her, hoping that she could take all the courage she had and lend him some, too. Telling someone you loved them was one thing. Leaving them was another.

She grinned a big toothy grin and waved as he walked away, and he shyly flailed his arm back at her.

"See you soon!" She shouted as he was carried away down the gravel road, and he only returned his torso to the safety of the car and rolled up the window when she was an orange and green blur in the distance.

Dipper leaned his head against the cool window of the car, removing his hat and staring at the blue embroidery on it like it was a sad memento of the things he'd be without for so long. He set it in his lap, one arm resting over it, the other hanging limp on the seat beside him, where Mabel placed her hand over his and squeezed it tightly.

"Next summer," She smiled her metal smile.

Her brother breathed out the weight on his chest, and watched Gravity Falls pass by outside-a series of evergreen blurs-like a distant dream slipping away as he reluctantly woke up.

"Next summer."


End file.
